Sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) is an organic chemical derived from coconut oil and it is commonly found in everything from laundry detergent to toothpaste. SLS is also one of the ingredients that Jessica Alba’s Honest Co. pledges to avoid using in its products. However, a new study claims that tests turned up SLS in Honest laundry detergent — an allegation the company is now denying. [More]

Looking for a reasonably-priced but effective laundry detergent? Consider signing up for a warehouse club if you aren’t already a member of one. Our high-efficiency colleagues down the hall at Consumer Reports just put out their list of great performers at reasonable prices, and two of the top three are house brands from Sam’s Club (Member’s Mark) or Costco (Kirkland). Non-members can check out Wisk Deep Clean instead. [More]

Tide might be the detergent of choice for criminals, but our stain-fighting cousins over at Consumer Reports tell us that in terms of actual quality, there’s a new champion in town. Products from Wisk and Kirkland (Costco’s house brand) took the top spots in their most recent detergent rankings. [More]

Using little more than leftover soap slivers, baking powder, and hydrogen peroxide, you can brew up a powerful potion to get that damn sauce stain off your brand new shirt. Inside, Tipnut’s easy recipes for pretreater and stain remover.

Listen parents, we told you all those years that cleaning the dishes before putting them in the dishwasher was silly and duplicative, and now we have the Times telling us we were right! Ha! Pre-rinsing dishes is “actually triple bad” according a “senior dishwasher design engineer,” because dishwasher detergent exists to attack food, and when it doesn’t find any, it instead attacks your glasses. It also wastes electricity and water. And that’s not the only mistake most people make. Inside, the Times’ tips for keeping your dishwasher happy…

Reader Zack was curious why three different kinds of Tide detergent on the shelf had the same price and same volume, but the label said they delivered different amounts of loads. Consumer Reports investigated, and they have the answer.

Adapting to the threat of informed consumers, the insidious Grocery Shrink Ray has mutated to enlarge select items. The Grocery Shrink Ray is seen here needlessly inflating the size of the scoop bundled with Cheer Color Guard detergent. Is Cheer encouraging consumers to burn through their product faster, or is the new Cheer simply less effective? Reader Mark investigates, inside…

Consumer Reports cut through the greasy claims of competing dishwasher detergents to find out which one is best suited for Ric Romero’s “dirty dish-duty.” The winner? Much like the Special Olympics, everyone won. Each detergent works fine if you scrub long enough. Efficiency comes with a price, and Dawn direct foam was the costliest and speediest of the twelve brands tested, followed closely by Ajax Lemon Dish Liquid.